we go. we make house calls.

we build health systems. we stay.

Partners in Health

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
What is Medical Anthropology?
 Medical Anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that draws upon social, cultural,
biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence
health and well being (broadly defined), the experience and distribution of illness, the
prevention and treatment of sickness, healing processes, the social relations of therapy
management, and the cultural importance and utilization of pluralistic medical systems.
 The discipline of medical anthropology draws upon many different theoretical approaches. It
is as attentive to popular health culture as bioscientific epidemiology, and the social
construction of knowledge and politics of science as scientific discovery and hypothesis testing.
Medical anthropologists examine how the health of individuals, larger social formations, and
the environment are affected by interrelationships between humans and other species; cultural
norms and social institutions; micro and macro politics; and forces of globalization as each of
these affects local worlds.

[Link]/about/about-medical-anthropology/
Medical Anthropologists Study…
 Health ramifications of ecological “adaptation and maladaptation”
 Popular health culture and domestic health care practices
 Local interpretations of bodily processes
 Perceptions of risk, vulnerability and responsibility for illness and health care
 Risk and protective dimensions of human behavior, cultural norms and social institutions
 Preventative health and harm reduction practices
 The experience of illness and the social relations of sickness
 The range of factors driving health, nutrition and health care transitions
 Medical practices in the context of modernity, colonial, and post-colonial social formations
 The use and interpretation of pharmaceuticals and forms of biotechnology
 Disease distribution and health disparity
 The political ecology of infectious and vector borne diseases, chronic diseases and states of
malnutrition, and violence
 The possibilities for a critically engaged yet clinically relevant application of anthropology
…and more

[Link]/about/about-medical-anthropology/
Become a Medical Anthropologist
 Get a Bachelor’s Degree
Aspiring medical anthropologists must begin by earning a bachelor's degree. A major in anthropology can
prepare students for this career field. Coursework in anthropology includes language, culture, research
methods and religion. Other useful classes are those in statistics, math, quantitative research and research
analysis. Students may also study nursing, public health or other medical fields with coursework focusing on
science and health.
 Complete an Internship
Many anthropology programs require or recommend an internship. Students who participate in internship
programs gain experience working with a variety of organizations that they may encounter as professional
medical anthropologists, including museums, libraries, government agencies and cultural institutions. They
practice researching, recording and reporting information.
 Get a Master’s Degree or Ph.D.
Most employers require job candidates to have a master's degree or Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology. Studies
at the graduate level include health and life cycles, ethno and alternative medicine, sexuality and gender.
Students may also study medical ethics, geriatrics and public health. Complementary degrees include a
Master of Public Health or Medical Doctorate.
 Conduct Research
Both students and professional medical anthropologists conduct research. Learning to compile and organize
collected information requires attention to detail, organization and an open mind. Medical anthropologists
must also be willing to travel and live in unusual situations in order to study cultures. They must be patient
and willing to work on projects that can span years. Research topics range from the spread and prevalence
of illness among designated groups to the morals of medicine and the stigmas of mental illness.

[Link]/articles/Become_a_Medical_Anthropologist_Step-by-Step_Career_Guide.html
Meet Paul Farmer (1959- )

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, is an American

anthropologist and physician, but also
an avid human rights activist, fighting
to provide health care for the world’s
poorest people. He has become
something of a celebrity in medical
anthropology, a sub-field of cultural
anthropology, which examines
cultural, social and other factors to
discover how they influence health.
He has also worked on fighting
infectious diseases and promoting basic human rights in both Peru and Russia. Being a physician
and medical anthropologist, he has a unique insight into the understanding of native healers,
while being able to offer his own treatments. Farmer has received many awards, including the
Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association and a MacArthur
Foundation “Genius” Award.

[Link]/2014/05/10-famous-cultural-anthropologists/
Meet Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
Margaret Mead is often regarded as the original rebel anthropologist of the United States, her
easy-to-follow style of writing, controversial research regarding sex and outspoken personality
heightened her fame even beyond the world of anthropology. Her research brought her to the
South Pacific, specifically Samoa, where she suggested that culture, not just biology, has an
impact on adolescent behavior (this was published in her first book, “Coming of Age in Samoa”).
Through close observation of Samoan children, and the ease with which they entered adulthood,
Mead came to the conclusion that teenage angst and stress had more to do with external
factors than anything internal.
She continued to return to Samoa for
research, but also collected information in
Papua New Guinea and Bali. This breadth
of information led her to publish more
than 30 books and hundreds of other
works. Her openness about her own
methodologies as well as addressing
sensitive research topics such as
sexuality, made her one of the most
talked about anthropologists and read
authors in the world.
[Link]/2014/05/10-famous-cultural-anthropologists/
Meet João Biehl
João Biehl is Susan Dod Brown Professor of Anthropology and Woodrow
Wilson School Faculty Associate at Princeton University. He is also the Co-
Director of Princeton’s Program in Global Health and Health Policy.
Prof. Biehl’s main research and teaching interests center on medical
anthropology, the social studies of science and technology, global health,
pharmaceuticals, religion and society, subjectivity, and ethnography and
critical theory (with a regional focus on Latin America and Brazil).
He has authored award winning books, Vita: Life in a Zone of Social
Abandonment, and Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival-
ethnographic studies of the experience and treatment of mental illness
and AIDS, respectively. Both explore new geographies of access and
marginalization that have emerged alongside pharmaceutical globalization.
Prof. Biehl’s present ethnographic research explores the social impact of
large-scale treatment programs in resource-poor settings, the role of the
judiciary in administering public health, and the emergence of the category
of patient-citizen-consumers in Brazil.
full bio

[Link]/
Sample Publications
 Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment, João Biehl
 Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival, João Biehl
 The Valley of Lamentation (manuscript), João Biehl
 When the People Come First: Evidence, Actuality, and Theory in Global Health (manuscript), João Biehl
 To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation, Paul Farmer
 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
 Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic, Julie Livingston

Vita is the end-station on the Beyond the technical fix.

road of poverty. Persistent inequalities.
It is the place where living beings The fragmentation of efforts.
go when they are no longer The unfinished.
considered people.
To think of life in terms of limits
Of love there is nothing and crossroads.
Only emptiness The right to a future.
What will become of the world?
Health policies need to be
“I am part of the origins, directed at people, not simply
not just of language, disease.
but of people…”
Medical Anthropology Programs
 University of California, San Diego School of Medicine* (La Jolla, CA)
 University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine* (San Francisco, CA)
 Yale University School of Medicine* (New Haven, CT)
 Emory University School of Medicine* (Atlanta, GA)
 University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine* (Chicago, IL)
 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Medicine (Urbana, IL)
 Harvard University* (Cambridge, MA)
 University of Michigan Medical School* (Ann Arbor, MI)
 St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO)
 Washington University School of Medicine* (St. Louis, MO)
 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine* (Philadelphia, PA)
 University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (Galveston, TX)
 University of Washington School of Medicine* (Seattle, WA)
 University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health* (Madison, WI)
 Medical College of Wisconsin* (Milwaukee, WI)
* currently funded under the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program

[Link]/?page=SSH
Applying MD/PhD in Anthropology
at the University of Pennsylvania

 The admissions process for the MD-PhD program in Anthropology

is coordinated through the MD-PhD office. Admissions decisions
are made jointly in an integrated process by the Anthropology
Graduate Group, the MD-PhD Program, and the Medical
School.
 Applicants submit their application via AMCAS. In addition to all
materials in the AMCAS and Penn MD-PhD supplemental
application, there is one additional essay that addresses the
factors that have encouraged you to seek an education from
Penn GSAS, including any significant personal or professional
experiences related to your program of study.
 Candidates who are selected for interview will then be asked to
complete additional application materials by the Anthropology
Graduate Group.

[Link]/anthropology/graduate/joint-phd-programs
 Sample MD/PhD Curriculum
at the University of Pennsylvania

Years 1-2: Primarily MD

Summer Some students matriculate in June for an early lab rotation

MS1 Medical school courses

one graduate school course per term
Summer Lab rotation
MS2 Medical school course work and a graduate seminar or independent study.
Clinical work, Board exams and scholarly activity.

Years 3-6: Primarily PhD

GS 1 Students take full time graduate school course work (usually 3 classes per term), and two more lab rotations. (MD-
PhD students receive substantial transfer credit from the graduate groups which allows them to complete course
requirements in one year). Thesis mentor is selected.
GS 2-4 Students are working on their thesis research, and participating in Clinical Connections.

Years 7-8: Primarily MD

MS3 Students defend their dissertation, typically sometime in the fall semester. After that they take a clinical warm up
course, and then resume clinical clerkships and electives.
MS4 More clinical course work, Boards part 2, applying and interviewing for residency (usually), and sometimes
conducting additional research.

[Link]/mstp/[Link]
 Sample MS Curriculum
at Boston University School of Medicine

Fall Spring Summer

History & Theory of Medical Anthropology I History & Theory of Medical Anthropology II Summer Fieldwork
Medical Anthropology & Qualitative Research IRB Proposal Development and Writing Seminar
Methods and Design Volunteer Practicum Pt. Thesis-Related
Volunteer Practicum Pt. 1 Two Elective Courses Fieldwork
Two Elective Courses Professional Development Workshop
Professional Development Workshop

Reading Ethnography in Medical Writing Ethnography in Medical

Anthropology Anthropology
Medical Anthropological and Qualitative Final Project Writing Seminar, Pt. 2
Data Analysis Two Elective Courses
Final Writing Project, Pt. 1 Thesis
One Elective Course Professional Development Workshop
Professional Development Workshop Presentation of Thesis Findings

[Link]/gms/maccp/academics/maccp-requirements/
For More Information…
 American Anthropological Association: [Link]/
 Society for Medical Anthropology: [Link]/
 Medical Anthropology Students Association: [Link]/
 Medical Anthropology Quarterly: [Link]/
 Medicine Anthropology Theory: [Link]/
 Partners in Health: [Link]/